Thanks, Rolan, interesting. I wonder how many pelicans are known to be breeding now in the Willapa-to-Columbia River vicinity? Has a familiar ring to it: just as we've had Caspian Terns increasing significantly up this way at Dungeness NWR in the past few years, after we noticing more and more of them appearing along the outer Olympic coast for a number of years before that. So I wonder if we aren't also perhaps seeing a rather rapidly growing, young pelican population now learning its way north up the coast. But so far it may only be a sizable fall post-fledging dispersal from a growing pelican population to the south. And evidence too perhaps of a pretty good offshore food supply up here this year. Or just La Nino, etc. Bruce

----- Original Message -----
From: Rolan Nelson
To: Bruce Moorhead ; Tweeters
Cc: Tom Aversa ; Bob Boekelheide
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 11:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Immature Brown Pelicans at Hoh River mouth


Greetings Bruce and Tweeters,

On Friday, John English and I were at Bowerman Basin and Ocean Shores in the morning and early afternoon. From the Hoq. Sewer Pond to the Jetty and back to the west side of the Game Range we saw somewhere in the vicinity of 600 Brown Pelicans, and, like Bruce, I would estimate that 2/3 to 3/4 of them were juveniles. I can't ever remember seeing so many pelicans in one place before.

-Rolan


Bruce Moorhead <bruceb at olypen.com> wrote:
On Wed., Sept. 26, while camping at Kalaloch along the outer coast of Olympic N.P. , I counted at least 150 Brown Pelicans fishing just offshore. The next day, about 10 linear miles to the north, I drove down to the Hoh River mouth on the south side of the river, within the Hoh Reservation, and found about 400-500 pelicans resting just inside the river mouth. Most (about 350) were rafting on a widening of the river along the east side of the beach strand that forms the south arm of the river mouth. The remainder were perched along the beach and on driftlogs that line the north side of the river mouth. What seemed particularly interesting to me was that most of the pelicans--at least 300 for sure--were immatures, which was rather easy to confirm with binocs by the relative absence of more readily apparent white-headed, adult birds as you scanned (and counted) across the gathered birds. Based on the beach characteristics and relative proximity to the Hoh Road here, I don't think this is a likely breeding site now or in the near future, and more likely just a good resting or staging area along this part of the coast. But I hadn't realized before that so many young pelicans are obviously moving this far north now.

Bruce Moorhead
Port Angeles, WA
bruceb at olypen.com


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Rolan Nelson
Lakewood, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com


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